Brendan Donovan

BIOGRAPHY

Brendan Donovan was born January 16, 1997, in Würzburg, Germany. He is an infielder in the MLB.

Donovan attended and played baseball at Enterprise High School in Enterprise, Alabama, where he hit .467 with four home runs, 44 RBIs, 17 doubles, and six triples as a senior in 2015. He played college baseball at the University of South Alabama. In 2017, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Hyannis Harbor Hawks of the Cape Cod Baseball League. In 2018, his junior year, he batted .302 with five home runs and 55 RBIs over 57 games. At the end of the season, he was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh round of the 2018 Major League Baseball draft.

Donovan signed made his professional debut with the State College Spikes of the Class A Short Season New York–Penn League, playing only four games. He spent a majority of 2019 with the Peoria Chiefs of the Class A Midwest League and played in one game with the Memphis Redbirds of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League, batting .268 with eight home runs and 53 RBIs over 114 games for the season. He started 2021 with Peoria (now members of the High-A Central before being promoted to the Springfield Cardinals of the Double-A Central in early June and to Memphis (now members of the Triple-A East) in mid-August. Over 108 games between the three teams, he slashed .304/.399/.455 with 12 home runs and 66 RBIs. Donovan was selected to play in the Arizona Fall League for the Glendale Desert Dogs after the season where he was named to the Fall Stars Game.

On April 25, 2022, Donovan was promoted to the major leagues. He made his MLB debut that night against the New York Mets as a pinch runner and scored on a single by Tyler O'Neill. The next night, Donovan made his first major league start; he went 0-for-2 and was hit by a pitch in a 0–3 loss to the Mets. On April 28, 2022, Donovan recorded his first career hit: a pinch-hit single against fellow rookie Tyler Holton of the Arizona Diamondbacks. On May 10, he hit his first MLB home run, off Dillon Tate of the Baltimore Orioles. He finished the season batting .281/.394/.379 in 126 games. He also became the first recipient of the National League Gold Glove Award for a utility player.